This invention relates to rolling and distribution of flexible elongated materials such as fencing, wire, and cable, and more particularly, to apparatus and methods for rolling and distributing fencing for easy use, re-use, recycling, and/or disposal.
Flexible elongated material, such as metal and plastic fencing, barbed wire, and electric cable, is widely used to enclose or divide properties. In agricultural and wildlife preservation applications, fences may be several miles long. For example, metal box fencing is used in game lands in the state of Pennsylvania and elsewhere to enclose large areas to exclude deer populations from decimating newly reforested areas. After several years, when the reforested area has matured, the fencing is removed to allow deer to repatriate the area.
While apparatus and methods are prevalent for installation of flexible fencing, fence removal apparatus and methods for the most part remain primitive, involving strenuous and tedious manual labor. Known manual methods require manual removal of fencing from support posts, and loose hand-rolling, cutting, and gathering of fencing material for removal from the subject property. These manual removal methods render fencing unsuitable for re-use or recycling, and inconvenient for transport and disposal.
There exist known apparatus for rolling and/or distribution of fencing. For example, examples of known apparatus for attachment onto vehicles to assist in reeling and unreeling wire and fencing materials include those described in: U.S. Pat. No. 2,914,270 to Parker et al. for a “Vehicle Attached Wire Stretching and Reeling Device”; U.S. Pat. No. 3,048,348 to Griffin for a “Wire Fencing Stringing and Stretching Implement”; U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,655 to Whistle for a “Hydraulic Post Setting and Wire Dispensing Apparatus”; U.S. Pat. No. 2,839,257 to Chicane for a “Wire Reel”; U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,114 to Farnsworth for a “Fencing Wire Unwinder and Tensioner”; U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,435 to Linklater for an “Apparatus for Winding and Unwinding Wire”; U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,718 to Lancour et al. for a “Fencing Dispenser”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,634 to Moon et al. for a “Fence Stretching Apparatus”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,782 to King for an “Apparatus for Winding Fence Material”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,046 to Beyer for “Reeling and Unreeling Apparatus, System, and Method.”
The above-mentioned Chicane, Farnsworth, Linklater, and Whistle patents disclose attachments that are capable of unwinding one or more reels of stranded wire only. The inventions disclosed in the above mentioned patents to Parker et al., Griffin, Lancour et al., Moon et al. and King are designed to unroll reels of woven wire fencing material. However, King does not allow the fencing material to be unreeled from a vertical orientation; therefore, the fencing material has to be lifted in a separate step to utilize it for fencing purposes. The King, Parker et al., Lancour et al. and Moon et al. devices do not allow for the unreeling of individual strands of wire such as would be necessary in the construction of a barbed wire fence. The Griffin device does provide for the addition of a single spool of barbed wire to be unreeled simultaneously with the reel of fencing material. Of the patents discussed above, only the Parker et al., Lancour et al., and Beyer patents disclose attachments that allow for the tilting of the apparatus necessary for ease of loading the device with a reel of fencing material. The Parker et al. device additionally provides a means for lowering a spindle for insertion through the center of a reel of fencing material, but requires that the lift arms of a three-point hitch of a tractor be used to raise and lower the spindle. The Lancour et al. patent discloses a fencing dispenser wherein a reel of fencing material is placed within a cage-like structure that can be lowered by means of a hydraulic cylinder. Notably, the Lancour et al. device does not have a shaft or spindle to support the fencing reel, rather it allows the reel to move freely within the cage to form a loose and uneven roll of fencing. The Beyer apparatus provides for winch-assisted tilting of the powered rotatable shaft for loading or unloading of wire, and also provides for placement of a number of vertically spaced fencing materials on the shaft for simultaneous distribution of strand-type fencing. However, the Breyer apparatus does not include any means for flattening, tensioning guiding, and positioning of the wire as it is retrieved or dispensed.
The above-described apparatus do not solve several problems that persist in the art of fencing recovery and distribution. Specifically, none of the above apparatus provide adequate means for flattening, tensioning, guiding, and positioning of fencing materials as they are retrieved onto, or distributed from, a wrapping shaft. Moreover, none of the apparatus include a supporting frame that allows for easy attachment directly to the bucket connection of an all-terrain skidloader, tractor loader, or backhoe, as well as onto the forklift attachment of any materials transfer or lifting vehicle. For these reasons, there is a continuing need for an apparatus that allows the tensioned reeling and unreeling of woven fencing material concurrently with a plurality of barbed wire strands, or any combination of various woven and strand-type fencing materials. There further exists a continuing and long-felt need for an apparatus and automated methods of fence removal that provide for tightly and evenly wound fencing for easy and efficient distribution, use, removal, re-use, recycling, and/or disposal.